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For a few weeks he hadn’t seen her signature or initials as much, he’d even wondered if she’d stepped back, but now here she was, in the background of a photo of the fallen light, drenched…and he recalled those curls wet and coiled from their time together.

‘Gabe?’

He was being addressed and, not for the first time, he hadn’t heard what was being said, and Gabe knew he simply had to see Stella.

His team were well versed in his methods. Of course he would keep an eye, and if there was a black swan event…

Yet right now he was having his own black swan event.

‘If you can call Stefano and arrange the helicopter?’

‘For when?’

‘Now.’

He couldn’t fight it any more.

Chapter Eleven

‘HOW ARE WE DOING?’ Sir Charles asked.

‘A touch behind,’ Stella said.

‘Par for the course.’ Sir Charles nodded. ‘So, an early wrap here and we’re all set for the car chase?’

‘All set.’

The schedule was impossibly tight—and everyone was on edge and doing their best not to show it. The lead actress had taken forever to arrive on set, and they were already on their fifth take of a tricky emotional scene.

Thankfully, though, they were almost there.

‘Hold…’ The sound recordist called for filming to pause. ‘There’s a helicopter.’

And then Stella herself heard the wop, wop, wop sound she had ached to hear finally transpire—at entirely the wrong moment!

‘Oh, God…’ she muttered.

There was a helicopter, out of shot but approaching, and Stella knew on sight that it was Gabe’s.

‘You are kidding me!’ Damon roared. ‘Cut!’ He let out a few expletives and all looked up as the helicopter neared and, as the noise intensified, Damon turned and marched towards Stella and Sir Charles.

‘It’s just the owner.’ She had to shout above the noise, though it could have been far worse, but thankfully, the estate was big enough that his arrival hadn’t blown up dust or leaves, or even caused so much as a breeze up here, but even so, valuable time would be lost. ‘He’ll be landed soon. The helipad’s out of the line of vision.’

‘Not good enough!’ Damon shouted, and not just because of the noise; he was clearly furious. ‘This is a closed set. If you’d done your job properly then he’d know that. Go and tell the elusive Count that he can’t just fly in and out on a whim.’

Stella really hoped that Sir Charles might offer to step in and take care of it, but he just nodded to Stella. ‘Go.’

The noise was subsiding but the tension on set was not and Stella ran across the length of the terrace and through the ballroom, the quickest route to the formal entrance, and then past the lemon orchard towards the helipad, unsure of her standing here with Gabe.

Work-wise, of course.

And even if her heart was pounding, even if the director was furious, even if she had a huge secret to tell Gabe, as he disembarked and she saw that yes, it really was him, a part of her wanted to collapse in relief.

He was dressed in a dark suit, wearing his shades…

Gabe was finally here.

* * *